The Rice Gene

Scientists have reported development of a large dataset of gene sequences in rice, an essential food for much of the world's population.

Using advanced gene sequencing technologies and high-powered computer-based approaches, researchers examined both normal gene expression (via messenger ribonucleic acids, or mRNAs) as well as small ribonucleic acids (small RNAs) in rice.

The analysis of rice was based on gene sequences representing nearly 47 million mRNA molecules and three million small RNAs, a larger dataset than has been reported for any other plant species.

Small RNAs, according to researchers, are considered one of most important discoveries in biotechnology in the last 10 years. Because they are so much smaller than mRNAs, small RNAs went unnoticed for many years, or were considered biologically unimportant.

Small RNAs are now known to play an important role in gene regulation, said Plant biologist Blake Meyers from the University of Delaware, adding that deficiencies in small RNA production can have a profound effect on development.

"Small RNAs also have been associated with other important biological processes, such as responses to stress," Meyers said. "Many of small RNAs in rice have related sequences in the many important cereal crop plants, including maize and wheat."

---LiveScience Staff

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Credit: Fangming Xie, IRRI